Hubert Aiwanger is in for trouble. The reason: Bavaria's economics minister is not present at the renowned Max Planck Society.
Munich – It should be a meeting of good news. On Tuesday, Bavaria's Council of Ministers wants to launch the next science offensive. 100 new positions for the “Artificial Intelligence” focus, doubling the previous program; an interim review of the university excellence strategy. What will certainly go unmentioned in the official announcements is that behind the scenes there is a lot of trouble in the cabinet. One of the central ministers is in trouble because he allegedly doesn't care enough about high-tech.
According to information from our newspaper, Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) is about to be expelled from the Senate of the Max Planck Society (MPG) because he has not attended a single meeting there for five years. It's not Bavarian bickering – it's anger from other countries. Since June 2023, the responsible conference of education ministers has refused to send Aiwanger back to the important MPG committee. Initially, the issue was politely postponed in view of the Bavarian state elections in October 2023. After that, the state ministers were at a loss. They nominated all proposed state politicians for the Senate – they left Aiwanger's seat vacant.
“There were reservations about the reappointment of State Minister Aiwanger because he did not attend the meeting,” is noted in a confidential document surrounding the meeting. “These reservations continue.”
14 appointments since taking office: Aiwanger didn't even show up
The coalition members in Bavaria, who are extremely proud of their science policy, are now not represented by a regent in the Senate. That's unusual. Especially since the Max Planck Society is of outstanding importance for business and science. It sees itself as Germany's most successful research organization – with 31 Nobel Prize winners, on a par with the world's best research institutions. In Bavaria alone it is the sponsor of over a dozen renowned institutes, from extraterrestrial physics to terrestrial tax law. The Senate, in which top researchers and high-ranking politicians meet, elects the president, appoints the institute directors and monitors the budget. Size: two billion euros, plus 24,000 employees.
Aiwanger has never found time for 14 appointments since taking office, including four virtual appointments during the pandemic. The CSU side in the cabinet has been complaining since last year at the latest that he is neglecting a significant part of his department: technology policy, start-ups, the interface between universities and business, as well as the entire international economic policy. The Max Planck gap is symptomatic of this and embarrassing for Bavaria. He obviously takes significantly more time for excessive participation in protest demonstrations.
Aiwanger could be replaced by Science Minister Blume
Plan B: The other countries would probably nominate Science Minister Markus Blume (CSU) for the Senate. So far, there have been no signals from Aiwanger about handing over this position to his partner. The first sign of improvement: yesterday Aiwanger received the new Max Planck President Prof. Patrick Cramer for his inaugural visit to Munich; However, he was already elected in mid-2022 and took office last June.
The cooperation with the MPG is considered “very good,” says Aiwanger’s ministry. There were several dozen discussions at the state secretary level. Incidentally, the former ministers (all from the CSU) only took part in one of 18 meetings between 2013 and 2018. (Christian Deutschländer)
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